Loading 9mm luger with Hodgdon cfe223 pistol powder

Been loading IMI cases, CCI 550 primers, Hodgdon CFE Pistol and 124gr FMJ Winchester RN at COAL 1.123". With both 5.1gr and 5.3gr charges, the cases came out dirty as hell.

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I suspect it's due to the Beretta Cx4 I'm using. Its design is a straight blowback, modified from a full auto capable SMG (the Mx4) so I'm thinking the chamber is intentionally made a tad oversize for feed/extraction reliability. I don't have a gauge to check its dimensions, unfortunately. I've tried to measure the leade of the chamber with a loose bullet in a once-fired case (the telescoping bullet method shown at http://www.czfirearms.us/index.php?topic=34225.0, and I can't even find the rifling, lol! A bullet with COAL of 1.275" goes in and comes out with the same length. Either the leade is really long or the rifling has a very long slope. Seeing as 9mm Luger max COAL is 1.169", I guess I'll only have to worry about my reload's COAL inasmuch as it impacts chamber peak pressure. :)

Best accuracy I've gotten yet is a 1.5MOA group at 50yrds, but it's meaningless, could have been a freak. I usually get 2.5-3.0 MOA, and I'm still searching for the right bullet and load for it.
 
Here is the answer I received from Hogdon when I inquired about the scorching.
What is happening that the case is not swelling enough after being fired and lets the gas escape and around the casing. The only way to fix this is to increase your load but you still have to stay in the load guideline for pressures. Some powders seem to do this more than others.

Mike Van Dyke
Customer Service Representative
Hodgdon Powder Company
 
Yup. There's basically four ways to increase pressure as far as I can see: use a faster powder, increase the charge for the current powder, use a heavier bullet and/or reduce the COAL. Any of those changes should cause an increase in the peak pressure so that the case makes a better seal.

I want to use slower powder if I can, not faster, because I want to take advantage of having a 19-3/4" barrel to get more muzzle velocity at equivalent chamber pressures. I want lighter bullets rather then heavier for the same reason.

I have seen no sign of overpressure yet, so I'll be trying 5.5gr, and depending how that works, I might reduce the COAL further from 1.123" to 1.100" or so.

Ultimately, though, case cleanliness will some far down my priorities behind finding an accurate load. :)
 
Quick update: still shooting from a 9mm Beretta Cx4 at 45 yards.

IMI cases fired once, CCI 550 small pistol magnum primers, Winchester 124gr FMJ bullets set at 1.150" COAL, 5.5gr of CFE Pistol powder.

Results were quite nice, the cases aren't coming out dirty anymore, and (likely because of the better pressure seal) accuracy has much improved. Average of the 10 groups was 3.05 MOA, average for 4/5 shots (removing the outlier round) was 2.30 MOA and some groups were at 1.5 MOA (5 rnds)/1.0 MOA half inch wide ragged hole (4/5 rnds). Not the slightest sign of overpressure.

I just got 115gr bullets from CamPro, lots more fun in sight!! :)
 
Grawfr said:
Quick update: still shooting from a 9mm Beretta Cx4 at 45 yards.

IMI cases fired once, CCI 550 small pistol magnum primers, Winchester 124gr FMJ bullets set at 1.150" COAL, 5.5gr of CFE Pistol powder.

Results were quite nice, the cases aren't coming out dirty anymore, and (likely because of the better pressure seal) accuracy has much improved. Average of the 10 groups was 3.05 MOA, average for 4/5 shots (removing the outlier round) was 2.30 MOA and some groups were at 1.5 MOA (5 rnds)/1.0 MOA half inch wide ragged hole (4/5 rnds). Not the slightest sign of overpressure.

I just got 115gr bullets from CamPro, lots more fun in sight!! :)
Click to expand...

What about a little tighter crimp would that help?
 
That's a good point, Silverfoxdj... tighter crimping would also increase chamber pressure, right? One more parameter to play with! :d

I'm almost out of Winchester 124gr FMJ bullets (and the local supplier was out of stock) and never really measured the taper crimp. I was simply crimping enough that I'd get a .5mm shiny ring at the case mouth. I can use the few bullets I have left and measure the diameter there.

With a brand new 1000-box of 115gr RN plated, I should definitely take a closer look at measuring the crimp as I work up the new loads from the bottom of the load charts.
 
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